TOROcast – Ep 150 – The Live Show

For episode 150 we decided to do something a bit different. Instead of our normal record the podcast and post it we have attempted to produce a live broadcast for our fan base. However, we have also recorded the show for those of you who were unable to attend the live show and would rather have it to listen in during your work day. Hope you enjoy it and thanks for sticking with us through 150 rock solid episodes.

About SammMoney

Hey there friends I am Samm 'Money' Carbo, owner of Twonk Hammer Entertainment, LLC. In March of 2009, along with a dearly missed friend I started a podcast some may know; The TOROcast based on Star Wars: The Old Republic, unfortunately that game was not a fit for me however I did not want to give up podcasting and reviewing games. Thus I started this site, and The Ban Hammer podcast. I am the proud father of currently one, work as a computer tech during the day, and a mail man on Saturday's as you can imagine my life is busy. Follow me on Twitter @SammMoney and of course follow us here @TwonkHammer.

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17 comments

Couple of not so quick commments. (Loved the live recording, sorry I missed the show on Sunday, only got around to my computer today. )

1.One of the most anticipated things for me upcoming on TOR is the potential for new story (post 50),in an expansion pack. That is primarily the main thing that I like about this Niche game aside from being a KOTOR sequel. With TOR’s Sub numbers down, do any of you see any potential future Mega Expansion packs coming on the way A la WOW’s Cataclysm, Mists, etc. or Bioware changing their stance on this and only staying with the smaller “1.”etc patches.

2. As far as companion swapping goes, the biggest issue i had with it was running around with a particular companion that i dont like (to keep myself alive) and getting into a story instance with it and having to deal with the companion in the instance.

(different companions VO in areas can be quite different at times) Ive since gotten used to either summoning a companion right before a story instance, or letting myself die once with the resummoned companion mid story (if a boss comes in mid-story) then summoning the needed companion for the mechanics.

If bioware ever goes back to what they origionally planned for companions, I will be very happy.

3. (Subscriber drop off theory)

Ive found my playing experiance (solo) on my default server (wounds in the force) to be amazing on class story areas, but grindy on world quest areas, this is Mitigated suprisingly alot by not only a different class playthrough but also a different gender/alignment, making the true portion of the game that is repeated to be around 55% instead of 75/85. Still alot, but my alt on the ——– PVP server (TORs largest) is having an absolute blast due to having literally 70+ people on origin worlds and 4-500 people on both fleets at any given time.

I would attest, that the subscriber drop off seen in tor, is (aside from the stated lack of current pvp options or oppretunities) largely due to people on lower pop servers taking forever to have warzones pop, finding people for flashpoints, (I never found a group for Normal 45+ flashpoints on my inquisitor for instance). TOR is very nice as a story game, but it is a blast with 4 player groups through lvl 1-50. I think server merges or transfers will assist this alot, but Samm, Tom and JJ, if you happen to be like me and only have a few days out of the week to play TOR, roll on the larger server, leveling will feel and be alot quicker. Lower pop servers ironically, are best for the non casuals even though hardcore players will avoid them. Why? Because whenever a casual logs on and sees only 2-3 other players listed in their planets region, it is usually very… eh… do I have to play today to get to my next story instance…

I realize that both guild cohesion and the legacy system makes it a hell of alot harder to do server transfers, but a cross server master guild system and bioware adding not just a high to low (free) but low to high pop (paid) server transfer would do wonders for me personally.

1º TOWNKHAMMER 100% Samm, got to love the “comming stuff”, more games, streams, TORO Player (BF3!!!!! so I can kill you n00bs), etc.

2º I, me, myself, yo, eu, mua… dont give a damn if SWTOR have got 1.200.000 subs or 9.999.999 “zillion” subs, I give a damn about being able to run FP, Heroics quests, blah blah blah, because with 5 ppl online we cant.

geez.. this podcast is becoming more and more depressing as time goes on

tom mentions the augment kits and the others are making snoring noises?
sam is busy working and not much else?
JJ is stabbing his balls with a stapler?

do any of you actually play the game anymore?

we all knew this game would be WoW with lightsabers .. and have story.. it seems like u all dont care about leveling, pvp or ops… i guess theres nothing much to talk about

players stop playing a game coz they are bored of it.. theres no real other reason and ur giving a perfect excuse to quit with this rubbish attempt of a podcast this week

you’ve got nothing to prove to me.. ur doing this podcast coz its your own fun and we get to listen in on your opinions and thoughts about the game .. its just so depressing to hear the same thing over and over about how this suck and that sucks and u dont even know what u want

a guild of 500+ is something u dont manage. the word “MANAGE” means scheduling times for doing ops or PVP together or even questing together. the ones interested will break off into their own groups and ask from a pool of players in guild “who wants to do xxxxxxx”. No one seriously will schedule raid time for 30 to 60 groups! HA! be a bit more realistic. It more about friendly

Next we will hear from Samm how its too hard to use his mouth to chew food or why its so shitty that he needs to put pants on to walk around in public

have to agree with silencer. with all the transitions last few weeks there hasn’t been much of substance. the guys are great to listen to but I’m subscribed to hear them talk about TOR.

If Samm’s not into it anymore then hand if off to Tom to run with and have him pull in some of the guys who still plays and focus on other things Twonkhammer related. It sounds like they are just going through the motions tho and/or caught up with real life stuff and not playing.

Also the complaining about what’s not in the game or that everything sucks I can get from swtor.com/community… not saying these guys are anywhere near that but lack of playtime + bitching = fail

Sorry to be a downer guys but you were my favorite swtor-cast and the last few weeks have been pretty bad.

Silencer, we are in the process of restructuring everything between the two sites. I know for a fact that Tom does still play SWTOR. I unfortunately between TOROcast and TwonkHammer have not had time to actually sit down and give SWTOR a solid replay. Its depressing really. I followed this game in and out spent huge amounts of money (nothing compared to some of the other sites) just like the rest of you. Unfortunately I am nothing but disappointed in how my experience turned out playing through the game.

I can assure you that I have every intention on playing SWTOR, and I will not cancel my sub until I see this game die. We bitch about SWTOR because there is nothing good to talk about it. Its a flop niche MMO. When everything balances out, I expect that we will see no more than 500,000 players in the game, and with all the servers they have, it will be so spread thin you might as well be alone.

they could use some new mojo like they generated w/the guild summit and the 1.2 preview. I’m guessing right now that they would be so under fire without server transfers and ranked pvp it might be difficult to do a public event like that but I think it would be worthwhile.

My opinion is this game will be GREAT in one more year’s worth of content and ironing things out. I really do feel the game was released too early and too much fan support was ignored to tune this game. It really feels “old” with the huge lack of features that came out at launch. They needed to realized that to compete, you have to match what is out there now, not what it was at the start.

In many ways, I agree. However, gamer time tables and corporate time tables rarely mesh. You can substitute gamer for consumer freely.
The philosophy is always the same:

-When the product is in a “complete” form by corporate standards, it gets pushed out, regardless of if the product’s overall quality is at a point development is absolutely satisfied with (this was probably the thing I hated most about working in the corporate sector for almost 7 years).

Indy companies have the luxury of pushing back development indefinitely if they feel the quality of their product isn’t up to their standards. Bioware lost that luxury when EA bought up VG Holding Corp and acquired Bioware in the deal. Now Bioware is not just on an internal time table, they are also on EA’s time table.

The fact that SWTOR is an MMO probably hurt it in that EA’s timetable was most likely drastically shorter because of how patching happens in the genre. Something isn’t in there now? Patch it in. Is the game playable right now even without these features? Push it out there and add on to it as time passes.

In any case, the biggest thing I agree with about your statement is that SWTOR in a year’s time is likely to be a completely different beast than it is now.

In a year, we will most likely have cross server queues for all the group finders; we will likely also have expanded space combat (possibly PvP and maybe even guild capital ships); we will have more vanity pursuits to chase like new pets, new speeders, maybe even new land mounts; we may have Star Wars-themed holidays in one year’s time, plus by that time we may have gone through many enjoyable in-game events like the Tatooine outbreak, which was handled beautifully; most importantly, we will have new races and new story content (both have been confirmed for this year).

Right now, I agree with Samm that SWTOR is a niche MMO.

Do I think SWTOR will continue to be that way in a year?

No, I don’t.

Important MMO systems are coming sooner rather than later — the largest and, arguably, most important one being the introduction of the PvP cross server queuing system and the ability to queue up 8 to a group. Those are things that I wish had been in at launch, but as long as they get here soon I will be sated.

On a personal note, I am not as concerned about the future of SWTOR as I was even just a few months ago. Back then I was worried SWTOR would get buried under the onslaught of GW2 and MoP. However, having followed those games pretty closely in recent weeks, I don’t feel like either is going to be enough of a revolution to leave SWTOR unable to compete. Both games have chinks in the armor if you look closely enough. They are as imperfect as SWTOR in many ways (though MoP has the benefit of already having the important group finding systems already in place along with 7 years worth of back content to wade through if you bore of the new stuff).